wilderness

Microplastics in Antarctica

March 3, 2025 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Microplastics are small plastic pieces less than five millimeters long and typically far smaller than that. They come from a variety of sources, often from larger plastic debris that degrades into smaller and smaller pieces. There are also microbeads, which are tiny pieces of manufactured polyethylene plastic that are added to various health and beauty products. Tiny bits of plastic easily pass through filtration systems and end up in the ocean and other bodies of water.

Microplastics are a pervasive problem for which nowhere on Earth is truly untouched. Despite stringent regulations on materials entering Antarctica, scientists have discovered microplastics in the snow near some of the deep field camps there.

A study by the British Antarctic Survey made use of a new and advanced technique that can detect microplastics as small as 11 microns – about the size of a red blood cell.

The research team found microplastics at concentrations ranging from 73 to 3,099 particles per liter of snow.

Snow samples from three different sites identified polyamide (used in textiles), polyethylene terephthalate (found in bottles and packaging), polyethylene, and synthetic rubber. The results suggest that at least the polyamide, which accounted for half the microplastics found, came from local sources.

Additional research is needed to fully understand the sources of microplastic pollution in Antarctica and to understand the broader implications of microplastics in that frozen wilderness. Microplastics have already been detected in several penguin, seal, and fish species.

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Microplastics discovered in Antarctica

Photo, posted February 3, 2015, courtesy of Christian Stangl via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Antarctic greening

November 6, 2024 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The Antarctic Peninsula, like other polar regions, is warming faster than the rest of the world. Ocean heatwaves and ice loss are becoming more common and more severe.

New research by the universities of Exeter and Hertfordshire in the UK along with the British Antarctic Survey used satellite data to assess how much the Antarctic Peninsula has been greening in response to climate change. The Antarctic Peninsula is an 800-mile extension of Antarctica toward the southern tip of South America.

The study found that the area of vegetation cover across the Peninsula increased from less than one square kilometer in 1986 to almost 12 square kilometers in 2021. This greening trend accelerated by more than 30% in the period 2016-2021 relative to the entire 1986-2021 period.

An earlier study also showed that the rates of plant growth on the Antarctic Peninsula has increased dramatically in recent decades. The landscape is almost entirely dominated by snow, ice, and rock, with only a tiny fraction supporting plant life. The plants found on the Peninsula – mostly mosses – grow in some of the harshest conditions on earth. But that tiny fraction has greatly increased, showing that this isolated wilderness is being altered by climate change.

The sensitivity of the Antarctic Peninsula’s vegetation to the changing climate is evident and as warming continues, there could be fundamental changes to the biology and landscape of this unique and vulnerable region.

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Antarctic ‘greening’ at dramatic rate

Photo, posted June 2, 2018, courtesy of Murray Foubister via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Averting a mass extinction

July 19, 2024 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

There has been widespread concern that biodiversity is under siege and that we are in the beginnings of a sixth mass extinction in the long history of the Earth, this time caused by the actions of humanity. There has been considerable debate about what can be done about it and solutions generally involve protecting large areas of the planet from human disruptions. Some countries have set a target of protecting 30% of land and sea.

A new study by a broad coalition of conservation organizations and published in Frontiers in Science, concludes that humans can preserve much of the great diversity of life on Earth by setting aside just 1.2% of the planet for protection.

The experts mapped the wilderness available to rare and threatened plants and animals. They then identified specific hotspots for rare wildlife that have yet to be protected. They found a total of 16,825 such sites which nevertheless all together add up an area smaller than the state of Wisconsin.

Some scientists have been warning that by focusing too much on the size of protected lands, we are not necessarily safeguarding areas that are especially rich in wildlife. The new study pushes for prioritizing hotspots for rare species, which the authors claim would be sufficient to stave off a sixth mass extinction. The truth is that most species on Earth are rare, meaning that they are few in number or cover a small range, or both.

The study estimated that the cost of protecting the identified hotspot sites would be $263 billion, which is certainly a large amount of money. But the authors point out that this sum to save global biodiversity is less than the yearly revenue of Shell Oil.

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To Avert a Mass Extinction, Protect 1 Percent of Earth

Photo, posted April 20, 2018, courtesy of Per Harald Olsen / AfricanBioServices via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Farming the frozen north

November 28, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Agriculture is the primary cause of land-based biodiversity loss. As the global population grows, agricultural production needs to keep pace. Estimates are that production needs to double by 2050. How this can be accomplished without doing further harm to the environment and biodiversity is extremely challenging.

Climate change adds further complications to the challenge. As the climate warms in the middle latitudes, agricultural zones may need to shift northward to regions which have evolved to have more suitable climates. This represents a very real threat to the wilderness areas of Canada, Russia, and Scandinavia. These places represent a significant fraction of the world’s wilderness areas outside of Antarctica.

According to researchers at the University of Exeter in the UK, if the forces driving climate change are not diminished, over the next 40 years warming temperatures are expected to make more than 1 million square miles newly suitable for growing crops. As cropland goes barren in areas that have warmed too much, northern wilderness could be turned over to farming. The vital integrity of these valuable areas could be irreversibly lost.

The study, published in the journal Current Biology, also says that climate change will shrink the variety of crops that can be grown on 72% of the land that is currently farmed worldwide. Given this situation along with the rising global population, it is essential that land be used more efficiently. We can feed a larger population from the farmland we already have, but people need to reduce meat consumption, cut food waste, and grow crops suited to their local climate.

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Warming Could Make Northern Wilderness Ripe for Farming, Study Finds

Photo, posted September 7, 2016, courtesy of Scott via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A Philippine Coral Reef Survives

January 2, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

One of the greatest coral reef ecosystems in the world, the Tubbataha Reef in the Philippines, continues to prosper. Undersea coral walls that plunge more than 300 feet deep are home to some 600 species of fish and 360 kinds of coral, about half of all known species. According to experts, the ocean wilderness of Tubbataha Reef is about the closest thing to a true natural state for any reef in the world.

Yellowstone Grizzlies

July 27, 2017 By EarthWise

Grizzly bears once roamed much of North America and symbolized the continent’s untamed wilderness. But hunters and trappers nearly wiped them out across most of the Lower 48 states by the late 1800s.

Arctic Shipping

December 21, 2016 By EarthWise

The Arctic used to be pretty much a pristine wilderness populated only by fairly small numbers of indigenous residents living environmentally benign lifestyles. The disruptive elements of modern civilization were not much of a factor. Because of the changing climate, this is no longer true.

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Wilderness Lost

October 10, 2016 By WAMC WEB

Wilderness areas are strongholds for biodiversity. They buffer and regulate local climates, and they support many of the world’s most politically and economically marginalized communities. While there is a great deal of attention being paid to the loss of species around the world, there is relatively little focus on the loss of entire ecosystems. Simply put, wilderness is on the decline, and it has been ever since human civilization began its inexorable expansion.

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Ending The Protection Of Grizzly Bears

March 28, 2016 By WAMC WEB

Grizzly bears, also known as North American brown bears, once roamed much of North America and symbolized the continent’s untamed wilderness. But hunters and trappers nearly wiped them out across most of the Lower 48 states by the late 1800s.

Noise Pollution And Wildlife

November 11, 2015 By WAMC WEB

Traffic noise is something nobody likes. We shy away from homes too close to highways and major roads. We soundproof our houses. We build noise abatement walls.

We Need More Free-Range Kids

September 4, 2015 By EarthWise

Once-upon-a-time, kids were expected to amuse themselves outdoors. Today, fears of shady neighbors and bodily harm have led to a nation of parents who appear content to keep their kids inside, playing computer games, surfing the web, texting, and watching TV.